Who am I ?

Mathieu DO DUC is an English teacher in a vocational High School and a freelance photographer working as he puts it « for the time needed ».

Born in Saigon 1958, VIETNAM, he now lives in Marseilles. He spent 15 years in the suburbs of Paris where he discovered through the works of Cartier Bresson, Doisneau, Ronis, Kertesz, Boubat, Brassaï and many others fine photographers that everyday life could be worth of interest and become work of art. Very much influenced by these masters, the Humanists, and the American street photographers he started his project on the children of the Groux (1986-1992), a poor housing estate in Fresnes, Val de Marne and got a scholarship from “le Conseil Général du Val de Marne” to exhibit his work in many cities of the south suburb of Paris.

Back to Marseilles, “Images Plurielles”, a photography publisher from Marseille gathered his photographs of Children in Urban area in a book “photo-la-graphie moi” (2001) which is now sold out. Among his other works: “Body and Soul”, jazz portraits of live musicians; “Le soleil nous laisse à desjours plus Vieux”, pictures of seniors in everyday life; “VIETNAM 39” his return to Vietnam after 39 years of absence.

“From the mere bystander to Jazz musicians, from children to seniors, in cities of the world or here and there, in front of his house or in a remote country, he tries to catch in his lens the beauty, sometimes the gravity but always the poetry of a situation, a gentle gesture, a simple look.”